Submit Articles For Author Exposure
By Christopher Vaughn
Whether you're selling gadgets or widgets, it's no secret that marketing yourself is a daunting task. Especially when you're a self published author!
As daunting as it can be, don't give up, it's not impossible. Since I began taking my writing seriously I’ve taken steps to market my work. I've used word-of-mouth marketing, book trailers, networking on forum type websites, and even unconventional tactics such as placing business cards in books of the same genre. But without a question the marketing technique that has had the largest impact has been doing what I enjoy... writing.
In 2007 I began writing for an online news magazine called American Chronicle and realized its potential to help drive visitors to my personal website, Alleywolf.com. By 2008 I had made the decision to create a reoccurring article that like-minded writers and readers would find useful, and on April 1st 2008 the first "Author-2-Author" article was published.
With my Author-2-Author articles I've been able to interview several New York Times Bestselling authors such as Christine Feehan and author team Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I've also had the opportunity to interview some other great authors like Jeremy Robinson, who also started as a self published author and worked his way to not only a traditional publishing contract but a very decent movie rights sale. Of course, it would be rude to not mention my interview with our host, the great Tony Eldridge of the Samson Effect. But as exciting as it is to rub elbows with well known authors, the real benefits lay in two parts.
First, it allows me to network with other authors who have more experience than I do and since I'm writing the questions, I can direct the interview to get the answers I need. Not to mention that several of the authors I've interviewed or spoken too were originally contacted through queries sent to their agents and publishers... a very useful resource to include in your email marketing campaigns.
The second part is that Author-2-Author has given me some great public exposure at zero cost! According to my website provider 68% of my traffic comes from direct access, bookmarked visitors, and email links. 12.9% of my site's visitors are due to search engines, and 18.3% are due to American Chronicle. Considering that 18.3% of my potential customers are the result of a zero cost advertising campaign, I'm not going to complain. In 2008 my website was visited 18,403 times… without paying for any search engine boosters like Google’s AdWords.
A check of my American Chronicle statistics shows that my articles in 2008 were read by 15,887 readers, two of which included articles I wrote regarding my own work, 'Garbage Vortex' with 1,112 readers and 'I See Aliens' with 573 readers. My interview with Tony Eldridge has thus far been read by 937 people, which at the moment is beating my interview with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child by 84 readers. With the articles remaining on American Chronicle’s searchable database, the more I write, the stronger my no-cost-advertising campaign gets. Since my very first article on American Chronicle in 2007 I've gained a readership of 26,111 readers!
Hopefully by now you're saying to yourself, "So how do I get in on this?" Simple, visit their website and click on the 'send us info' link. They then give you three options: press releases and announcements, website submissions, and established contributors. Visit their writer information page and follow their instructions. Then write, write, and write some more.
My main website: www.Alleywolf.com
My American Chronicle article page
http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/1874
American Chronicle home page
www.AmericanChronicle.com
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